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In 1840, when the first offi­cial British pres­ence touched down in New Zealand, it was led by a very ide­al­is­tic young naval cap­tain, Captain Hobson. And he gath­ered togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives of most of the tribes in New Zealand. And at the Treaty of Waitangi he agreed that there should be cer­tain rights that would be inher­ent with­in the Māori nation if they pledged alle­giance to Queen Victoria.

So, why am I doing this? Rip it Up is such a rich resource, espe­cial­ly in the ear­ly years. Nothing else was real­ly doc­u­ment­ing pop cul­ture, let alone the nascent alter­na­tive cul­ture that was start­ing to boil up. The pre­vail­ing atti­tude in the main­stream media of the day seemed to be that pop music was kid’s stuff.